halloween...

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I was wondering this because I know several fundamentalists who by no means celebrate Halloween or let there children go trick or treating. When I was a child I went and was never taught at Mass that it was Horrible. Should we as Catholics celebrate Halloween??
 
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uofl19:
I was wondering this because I know several fundamentalists who by no means celebrate Halloween or let there children go trick or treating. When I was a child I went and was never taught at Mass that it was Horrible. Should we as Catholics celebrate Halloween??
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Here’s one take on it:

envoymagazine.com/backissues/2.5/story1.html

and a couple more:

catholic.com/thisrock/1998/9809fea2.asp

catholic.com/thisrock/2001/0110fea4.asp
 
A priest at our Church has said that Halloween is so commercialized and secular that there really isn’t harm in the practice of trick-or-treating, as long as our celebration of All Saints day and All Souls day is given the reverance due. Of course, with little kids, it’s really hard to explain how our Church Suffering is more important than candy and costumes, but c’est la vie. It is the job of parents to come up with family traditions that illustrate this importance outside of the churchly obligations. In my humble opinion, anyway. 😉
 
My take on it is that I get really upset when people freak out about Halloween and act like it’s evil and all that. Is there anything intrinsically wrong with it? Not really… the problem that virtually all of it’s opponents cite is that it is a day where all sorts of Satan worshippers do rituals and stuff like that, so we should be opposed to it.

Here’s the problem:

Every year at Christmas, hundreds of millions of people take the event as an oppurtunity to engage in gross idolatry in which they essentially worship material posessions. They also compete incredibly pridefully over who can give the best gift and thus who can win someone’s love more. They also take the oppurtunity to essentially use the event to blackmail their children and to get them to do good works for the sake of getting material posessions in return. They also ban people who actually want to use the event to proclaim the joy of our Lord’s coming from doing so unless they hide in their basements with the curtains drawn. They also turn our Lord into a meaningless side note to a fat elf, a flying reindeer, and a talking snowman. Finally, they turn our Lord into a spokesman for the idolatry, pride, and blackmail.

And this is all stuff that our society encourages, whereas the people who practice evil on Halloween are behaving contrary to what the world believes.

Should we stop celebrating Christmas?
 
My parents explained the why’s of Halloween to us as we got old enough to understand…'twas a good learning experience.

Also learned at a very early age how hysterical some people are in their misconceptions.

Halloween is probably less dangerous to children’s faith than the misconceptions presented by “Santa Claus” and the whole Christmas “traditions” of this country.

BTW, can anyone explain why Jingle Bells is considered a Christmas song…perhaps there is some sinister connection that I am unaware of :confused:
 
Lazer, I could not agree anymore with your post. AMEN!! I just had a child born last week and I am sure my Fundamentalist in-laws will pretty much dispise my wife and I if I let my son go trick or treating. Why not allow them to dress up in biblical characters?? They don’t have to be witches and devils!!
 
I was brought up to believe that Halloween was the “eve of All Souls and Saints Day”. We would dress up in fun costumes and we had fun. I think there is a sadness about people who purposefully inject Satan into situation - whether through worship of him or through honest fear and hatred of him - because it reflects (in my opinion) a lack of faith in The Word.
 
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uofl19:
Lazer, I could not agree anymore with your post. AMEN!! I just had a child born last week and I am sure my Fundamentalist in-laws will pretty much dispise my wife and I if I let my son go trick or treating. Why not allow them to dress up in biblical characters?? They don’t have to be witches and devils!!
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One year my oldest went as Aslan, the lion from C.S. Lewis’ “The Chronicles of Narnia” One year I used a superman tee shirt and face paint to dress as the the character of Jesus from Godspell.
 
I probably will go out as Saint Lawrence complete with a grill and some early Christian attire. (maybe some black lines on my chest for fun) It will hard to tell who I am until someone asks and I can then tell them I am Saint Lawrence and the stories behind him.

I need to take my kids out trick or treating, they will be dressed in similar Christian themed costumes.

God Bless
Scylla
 
The first year our oldest son Matt was old enough to go Trick-or-Treating, he dressed up as a priest and the first place he went ringing bells was at the church rectory.

Alan
 
It is a Catholic observation of the vigil of All Saints’ Day, that has been usurped by the un-Godly; just like Mardi Gras.

In the Lord’s prayer we say, “Hollowed be thy name.” What does “Hallow” mean? “reverenced as Holy” The Saints are reverenced as Holy and the old name for All Saints’ Day was, “All Hollow’s Day”. The Vigil for this day was called, “All Hallow’s Eve.” Eventually it became called, “Halloween.” Somehow this observation of the Vigil of All Saints’ Day became what it is presently.
 
I have a personal bias toward halloween because it is my birthday.(hooray for me!😃 ) I love this holiday, partly because I am a horror movie fan and an overall wierdo.

I do not put parents down that do not wish to dress their children in scary costumes but dressing up in frightening monster outfits does serve a psychological purpose. Kids get to overcome their fears by making fun of what they find scary. It can be enpowering to become what you fear and see that it is nothing but a mask or face paint.
 
The way I see it, is that as halloween is something that is quite different from anyother day, the idea that a kid can go out and trrick-or-treat, take the situation and to do. Then use it to explain the real meaning of it all. Any child I think will take it more to heart cause 1) its a fun thing you don’t normally do and is special to the day. 2) They get a chance to have some of this ‘secrate knowledge’ that others might not get.
 
but what about all of the demonic activity, satanist meetings, missing children, and massacered black cats happening halloween, which is way higher than almost any other day of the year. halloween was origionally a pagan holiday when “spirits” from the netherworld were free to roam the earth playing mischeif… sounds a little like demons… but the christians took over that day, adn made the next day a holy day. but now that there has been a huge rise in satanism, its coming back, satan is taking back the day that was once his. sure it was and is a church holiday, but its so secularized that it has no church meaning anymore, and people go out in ignorance. and thinking of the theme of the night: witches, wearwolves, devils, ghosts, etc etc. not exactly a good night, sure theres lots of power rangers and supermans, but that doesnt exactly make it right…
 
I’m not Catholic but I think Halloween is a good learning tool.

It is not obvious to kids what is real and what is superstition. I think it is helpful to have a day where the line is drawn clearly for the kids.

I clearly remember asking my parents on one Halloween if there really were ghosts, vampires, werewolves, and the rest. It gave my parents the opportunity to say “No, people used to believe in such things but we know better now.” Having people dressed up as ghosts, vampires, and werewolves gave credibility to my parents’ words. We were poking fun at superstition.
 
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Angainor:
Having people dressed up as ghosts, vampires, and werewolves gave credibility to my parents’ words. We were poking fun at superstition.
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Angainor,

I think you have just hit the nail on the head. If you are poking fun at superstition (or at the old pagan religion, for that matter), then it is just fine. If you are celebrating Hallowe’en as the old pagan ritual because you are pagan, then no, it is not fine.
  • Liberian
 
Hiding from Halloween and allowing it to become secularized is just cowardly. We should be proud of being Christians and it makes me sad that people try to substitute Halloween for Harvest Day or some other made up substitute instead of taking it back and making it holy. As one article said if they do that with Halloween why not with Christmas? We shouldn’t hide out we should share the faith.

Scylla
 
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Liberian:
Angainor,

I think you have just hit the nail on the head. If you are poking fun at superstition (or at the old pagan religion, for that matter), then it is just fine. If you are celebrating Hallowe’en as the old pagan ritual because you are pagan, then no, it is not fine.
  • Liberian
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Oooh shivers

I don’t want to celebrate Hallow’s Eve because that was when I casted my first spell as a Witch. It was Samhain (Sowen) for us Pagans, when the veil between world of the dead and the world of the living were thin in that magick was at its highest, especially in the dusk of a full moon or new moon. It would just evoke so much memory, and tempt me again.

Even All Souls’ Day will tempt me, so though I want to celebrate, temptation would overrun me.

:crying:
 
Thank you Silverwings for making it clear that people still do that sort of stuff on halloween. and for Angainor, i dont want to sound like im being critica, but werewolves, vampires, and ghosts do exist. werewolves are humans who take on a transformation when posesed by a demon, and vampires (although the dont have pointy teeth) drink blood of innocent people in hope to gain a higher position of power within the satanic realm. books like dracula and werewolf stories have made it all so secularized that people dont realize this stuff really is stil tehre, and shouldnt just be poked fun at by people who honestly have no idea. and i mean no offence by any of that
 
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